Family business metaphors: envisioning images of peaceful and sustainable organizations

Abstract

Typically, business tenets advise: never go into business with your family. This book proposes that this discrepancy may actually be at the core of modern problems: social harm and environmental problems are largely related to advancements focused on current dualistic metaphors that value only the business dimension and devalue the family. This book aims to offer an alternative viewpoint, by discussing how core beliefs linked to various metaphors change the way we conduct and perform in our lives and businesses, so that the reader can practice sustainable methods, which also includes the family. Situating family businesses as the primordial way of social organizing, chapters explore definitions of organizational symbolism, metaphors, and archetypes in order to guide readers and change the way we consider the family role within business and the economy. Alessandra Tognazzo is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Padova, Italy, where she received her PhD in 2012. She teaches a Master course of Family Business and an Undergraduate course in Organization Design and Behavior. She won several national and international awards for her research and teaching works. She is the author and co-author of several books, contributions and published articles in international journals like Family Business Review, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Journal of Technology Transfer and International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. Her research interests include family business, SMEs, entrepreneurship, leadership and gender studies.